Water supply from Middle Vaitarna cut to less than half

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday said that the Middle Vaitarna dam project, which was to reduce the city’s water deficit by an additional supply of 455 million litres daily, will supply only around 200 million litres. The remaining supply would be ensured from next year.

The slow-paced construction of a bridge, which would stand between the dam and the nearby roads and villages undertaken by the state Public Works Department (PWD), is cited as the main hurdle. The additional quantity was to be supplied from this September.

“Water from the dam cannot be released to its full capacity unless the bridge is constructed, as the adjoining road diverging from the Mumbai-Nashik highway leading to the villages of Kochale and Jawhar would be submerged,” said an official from the BMC’s water supply projects department, on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to talk to the media.

The civic body had started storing water from July and as on Monday, the dam holds a stock of around 20 days’ worth. However, the dam, which can store water up to the capacity of approximately 1,93,000 million litres, would be able to hold only 75,000 million litres as the top portion of the dam is not yet ready to hold water, although the dam is complete.

BMC officials also said with the uncertain rain this year, they are yet to review the exact quantity of water to be released from the dam.

“Though we would be able to release around 200 million litres of water every day from the dam, a final strategy is yet to be devised after considering the amount of rainwater that gets collected in it,” said Anil Tawadia, deputy hydraulic engineer.